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Shaping Sustainability as a Lifestyle through Designing Agile Energy Strategies: Acting Responsibly and Thinking Sustainably

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Energy Sustainability".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2022) | Viewed by 12362

Special Issue Editors

Strategic Research Project Center, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
Interests: energy strategy; energy policy; sustainable development; environmental science; strategic management; renewable energy deployment; energy technologies; socioeconomic studies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, University of the Ryukyus, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan
Interests: high-efficiency energy conversion system; renewable energy in small islands; optimization of power system operation and control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

It is time for all of us to do our bit to support global sustainability in action.

At the age of political diversity and economic anarchy, deploying agile strategies and reaching viable long-term sustainability seem to be very difficult endeavors, particularly considering the near-constant increase in energy demand in the global context and the burden of climate change, which is anticipated to worsen with time. Sustainability strategies rely on a series of disciplines: technical, technological, social, political, environmental, ecological, economic, institutional, and global restrictions that make viable decision-making particularly hard.

Thus, this issue welcomes original research and review papers related to energy strategy, policy, acts, regulation, politics, economics, and other topics which are connected to Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This Special Issue aims to compile a conceptual framework for designing a strategic roadmap for sustainable energy deployment within lifecycle analysis in smart city appraisal. This will deliver a systematic process to exhaustively explore all influential factors. Therefore, this issue calls for papers to propose analyses, tools, techniques, methodologies, procedures, and best practices that assemble challenges in a hierarchy of uncertainties within a viable risk plan priority from initiation to compilation of a strategy.

Additionally, this Special Issue offers the opportunity to engage in practical application of theory through the framing energy strategy and policy within political transitions considering the sustainability dimensions along with energy accessibility, affordability, disparity, safety, security, use efficiency, supply and production efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and environmental impact factors. Various scenarios will be explored to draw a sustainable energy strategy to fit today’s demand (citizens expectation), resources (optimum utilization with high efficiency), and management (government) factors.

Dr. Mir Sayed Shah Danish
Prof. Dr. Tomonobu Senjyu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable development
  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • sustainable energy
  • energy strategy
  • energy policy
  • energy politics
  • energy justice
  • energy regulation
  • eco-energy
  • green energy
  • climate change
  • energy environmental impact
  • greenhouse gases
  • green architecture, low carbon energy production
  • energy strategic management
  • energy technologies
  • energy sustainability indicators
  • Sustainable Development Goal 7
  • smart city

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 3605 KiB  
Article
Techno-Economic-Environmental Energy Management of a Micro-Grid: A Mixed-Integer Linear Programming Approach
by Seyed Hasan Mirbarati, Najme Heidari, Amirhossein Nikoofard, Mir Sayed Shah Danish and Mahdi Khosravy
Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 15036; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142215036 - 14 Nov 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1042
Abstract
In recent years, owing to the effect of fossil fuels on global warming, the exhaustion of oil fields, and the lucrative impacts of renewable energy resources (RESs), the penetration of RESs has been increasing significantly in power systems. An effective way to benefit [...] Read more.
In recent years, owing to the effect of fossil fuels on global warming, the exhaustion of oil fields, and the lucrative impacts of renewable energy resources (RESs), the penetration of RESs has been increasing significantly in power systems. An effective way to benefit from all RESs advantages is by applying them in microgrid systems (MGS). Furthermore, MGS can ease the way for utilizing a large amount of RESs, if its economic-environmental-technical aspects of it are taken into account. In this regard, this paper proposes an optimal solution for the energy management of a microgrid by considering a comprehensive study. In the proposed methodology, different distributed energy resources such as wind turbines generator (WTG), energy storage (ES), combined heat and power (CHP), rubbish burning agent (RBA), and diesel generators (DG) are modeled. In addition, electric vehicles (EVs) are considered a load with uncertainty. The objective function of the proposed method is to minimize the microgrid’s total cost by considering the microgrid’s emission cost and technical constraints. In this study, the microgrid’s technical, environmental, and economic aspects are investigated. In addition, the optimization problem is converted into a mixed-integer linear programming method by using the proper linearization method. In this paper, the increasing effect of wind energy penetration rate on the total price also has been studied. The simulation results show that by increasing the wind energy penetration rate by up to 30% of total power, the total cost will decrease by up to 30.9%. Full article
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15 pages, 1799 KiB  
Article
Improving the Criteria for Transmission Line Routing beyond the Techno-Economics: The Case of Afghanistan
by Najib Rahman Sabory, Ahmad Murtaza Ershad, Mir Sayed Shah Danish and Tomonobu Senjyu
Sustainability 2022, 14(22), 14933; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su142214933 - 11 Nov 2022
Viewed by 1139
Abstract
It is not always the technical, financial, and environmental aspects of power projects that decisions are based on. There are many other political, social, and local issues shaping the decision-making processes. This research shows how political and social issues challenged the decision-making process [...] Read more.
It is not always the technical, financial, and environmental aspects of power projects that decisions are based on. There are many other political, social, and local issues shaping the decision-making processes. This research shows how political and social issues challenged the decision-making process of a high-voltage transmission line routing and how to avoid such unwanted consequences in similar projects. Our insights reveal the importance of risk, conflict, and stakeholder management techniques and strategies in successfully delivering power projects. When planning large energy projects, it is of utmost importance to engage and consult stakeholders, especially direct recipients, civil society, political parties, people’s representatives, and experts, in addition to the techno-economic considerations. Finally, it is suggested that there should be an authority at the country level responsible for deciding on routing, siting, prioritizing, and the strategic planning of power projects. Full article
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19 pages, 4501 KiB  
Article
Investigation on the Optical Design and Performance of a Single-Axis-Tracking Solar Parabolic trough Collector with a Secondary Reflector
by Chinnasamy Subramaniyan, Jothirathinam Subramani, Balasubramanian Kalidasan, Natarajan Anbuselvan, Thangaraj Yuvaraj, Natarajan Prabaharan and Tomonobu Senjyu
Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9918; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13179918 - 03 Sep 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2301
Abstract
The design of solar concentrating collectors for the effective utilization of solar energy is a challenging condition due to tracking errors leading to different divergences of the solar incidence angle. To enhance the optical performance of solar parabolic trough collectors (SPTC) under a [...] Read more.
The design of solar concentrating collectors for the effective utilization of solar energy is a challenging condition due to tracking errors leading to different divergences of the solar incidence angle. To enhance the optical performance of solar parabolic trough collectors (SPTC) under a diverged solar incidence angle, an additional compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is introduced as a secondary reflector. SPTC with CPC is designed and modeled for a single axis-tracking concentrating collector based on the local ambient conditions. In this work, the optical performance of the novel SPTC system with and without a secondary reflector is investigated using MATLAB and TRACEPRO software simulations for various tracking errors. The significance parameters such as the solar incidence angle, aperture length, receiver tube diameter, rim angle, concentration ratio, solar radiation, and absorbed flux are analyzed. The simulation results show that the rate of the absorbed flux on the receiver tube is significantly improved by providing the secondary reflector, which enhances the optical efficiency of the collector. It is found that the optical efficiency of the SPTC with a secondary reflector is 20% higher than the conventional collector system for a solar incidence angle of 2°. This work can effectively direct the choice of optimal secondary reflectors for SPTC under different design and operating conditions. Full article
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13 pages, 3190 KiB  
Article
A Forefront Framework for Sustainable Aquaponics Modeling and Design
by Mir Sayed Shah Danish, Tomonobu Senjyu, Najib Rahman Sabory, Mahdi Khosravy, Maria Luisa Grilli, Alexey Mikhaylov and Hemayatullah Majidi
Sustainability 2021, 13(16), 9313; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su13169313 - 19 Aug 2021
Cited by 30 | Viewed by 4843
Abstract
Aquaponics systems and technologies are growing primary industries in many countries, with high environmental and socio-economic advantages. Aquaponics is a closed-loop system that produces aquatic animals and plants in a new way using recirculated water and nutrients. With a growing world population expected [...] Read more.
Aquaponics systems and technologies are growing primary industries in many countries, with high environmental and socio-economic advantages. Aquaponics is a closed-loop system that produces aquatic animals and plants in a new way using recirculated water and nutrients. With a growing world population expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, food production sustainability is a primary issue in today’s world agenda, and aquaponics and aquaculture systems can be potential contributors to the challenge. Observing the climate changes and global warming’s impact on the ecosystem, decreasing aqua animal stocks, and responding to increasing demand are turning points in the sustainability era. In the past 15 years, fish production has doubled, thus denoting that aquaponics transforms into commercial scales with a revolutionized production, high efficiency, and fewer resources’ utilization, thus requiring proper operation and management standards and practices. Therefore, this study aims to shape a new framework for sustainable aquaponics modeling and utilization as the all-in-one solution platform covering technical, managerial, socio-economic, institutional, and environmental measures within the suitability requirements. The proposed model in this study offers a systematic approach to the design and implementation of sustainability-efficient aquaponics and aquaculture systems. Through an exhaustive coverage of the topic, this research effort can be counted as a practical reference for researchers, scholars, experts, practitioners, and students in the context of aquaponics and aquaculture studies. Full article
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Review

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15 pages, 519 KiB  
Review
Electro-Microbiology: A Green Approach for Energy and Environment Sustainability
by Manisha Phour, Mir Sayed Shah Danish, Najib Rahman Sabory, Mikaeel Ahmadi and Tomonobu Senjyu
Sustainability 2022, 14(17), 10676; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/su141710676 - 27 Aug 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1843
Abstract
Energy scarcity and environmental degradation have developed into major worldwide challenges. Electro-microbiology has the potential to turn trash into environmentally friendly and sustainable resources. Low power density MFCs remain a viable option for disposing of organic waste, as they are more cost-effective than [...] Read more.
Energy scarcity and environmental degradation have developed into major worldwide challenges. Electro-microbiology has the potential to turn trash into environmentally friendly and sustainable resources. Low power density MFCs remain a viable option for disposing of organic waste, as they are more cost-effective than previous methods. Coordination between researchers with diverse backgrounds is required to issues look at the new gates in waste to energy issues. Biocathodes are necessary for electrosynthesis because they require microorganisms to function as an electron source and then catalyze chemical synthesis. Organic compounds may be synthesized using discarded CO2 as a carbon source, reducing the requirement for considerable quantities of arable land. Additionally, the proposed approach can be sustainable and carbon neutral when a renewable energy source is explored. An additional benefit of microbial-assisted chemical synthesis with MECs is that it enables the production of valuable chemicals from wastewater while producing electricity. This study examines the sustainable approaches for green energy by discussing bioelectrochemical and electrochemical resources and technologies. Full article
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